Cup construction



Nov. 2, 1965 R. L. SHAPPELL ETAL CUP CONSTRUCTION Filed July 5. 1962 INVENTORl United States Patent O 3,215,325 CUP CONSTRUCTION Richard Lee Shappell, Cary, Ill., and Carl Richard Storms, Palmer Township, Northampton County, Pa., assignors to American Can Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Filed July 5, 1962, Ser. No. 207,600 2 Claims. (Cl. 229-15) The present invention relates to a novel cup construction and in particular to a bottom end construction for a disposable, tapered body cup whereby the bottom end wall is substantially flush with the bottom periphery of the cup body.

The bottom closure for tapered, nestable cups usually includes a substantially flat panel and a peripheral flange extending at an angle to the panel, with the panel extending transversely of the body and forming a bottom or end wall. The flange may extend upwardly or downwardly, i.e. toward or away from the closed bottom, and is adhesively secured to the inside surface of the body thereby securing the end closure to the body. The most usual construction in securing the bottom end closure to the body is to have the lower periphery of the body folded inwardly or hemmed. Regardless of the disposition of the flange, the hemmed lower periphery of the body spaces the panel away from the lower end creating a space 'at the bottom of the cup, or in other words, a false bottom effect.

A vast quantity of disposable cups are dispensed from a nested stack thereof held in a suitable dispensing apparatus. The prior art cups described above waste a considerable amount of space when the cups are nested. This waste space obviously limits the quantity of cups that can be placed in a stack within the dispensing equipment.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a tapered-body, nestable cup having a bottom wall or closure substantially flush with the bottom periphery of the body.

Yet another object is to provide a tapered-body, nestable cup having little or no wasted space at the bottom thereof.

Still a further object is to provide a tapered-body, nestable cup construction enabling a greater number of such cups to be nested in a stack for any given height.

Another object is to provide a tapered-body, nestable cup which is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture.

Numerous other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent as it is better understood from the following description, which, taken in connection with the :accompanying drawing, discloses a preferred embodiment thereof.

The above objects are achieved by providing a two-piece cup having a body with a tapered side wall and a bottom attached to the lower periphery of the side wall. The bottom closure includes a panel extending across the bottom of the body forming an end or bottom wall, and a peripheral flange extending at an angle to the panel away from the bottom of the body and adhesively secured to the inside surface of the side wall adjacent the body bottom. The panel, at least adjacent its juncture with the flange, is substantially `co-planar with the bottom periphery of the body.

Referring to the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the subject cup construction partly in section;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along lines 2-2 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a View similar to FIG. 2 but showing an alternate form of the invention.

As a preferred or exemplary embodiment of the subject Patented Nov. 2, 1965 ice invention, FIG. 1 shows a nestable cup generally designated 10 composed preferably of paper, although other suitable materials such as plastic or metal foil may be used. Since the cup 10 is primarily designed to contain liquids, the paper is made liquid-resistant such as by dry Waxing or coating. The cup 10 is of a two-piece construction -including a body 12 and an end closure generally designated 14.

The side wall of the cup body 12 tapers inwardly, e.g. about 7, in a straight line towards its bottom closed end. Surrounding the upper open end is a peripheral bead or rolled brim 15. The body 12 may be of any desired crosssection but is preferably circular in cross-section so that it is substantially frusto-conical in shape.

The end closure 14 includes a central panel generally designated 16 which extends transversely ofthe body 12 at its lower end forming the lower end wall of the cup 10. As best shown in FIG. 2, the panel 16 has, substantially at its center, an inward embossment 17, which embossment is integral with and surrounded by an inwardly angled annular portion 1S. This inward direction of the embossment 17 and annular portion 18 is to give the panel 16 more rigidity so that it will be held inwardly for better stacking when the cup 10 is not in use, and will resist outward flexing or bulging when the cup 10 is filled. It is to be understood that, if desired, the embossment 17 may be omitted and/ or the annular portion 18 may be made flat.

The closure 14 also includes a peripheral flange 20. The flange 20 is integral with and surrounds the panel 16 and extends upwardly away from the bottom of the body 12 at an angle to the end wall. The flange 20 is disposed within the =body 12 and is adhesively secured along one face thereof to the contiguous surface of the body adjacent its bottom.

As shown in FIG. 2, an essential and critical feature of the instant construction is that the panel 16 is substantially co-planar, at least adjacent the juncture of its annular portion 18 Iand flange 20, with the periphery of the cup body 12 at the lower or smaller diameter end of the body. This construction not only reduces the amount of paper required to form the body 12 for a given holding volume, but also perm-its closer nesting, e.g. hrim-to-brim nesting, of the cups in a stack thereof.

To further insure close nesting of the subject cups when formed into a stack, as shown in FIG. 2, the lower portion of the body side wall has a greater angle of taper, e.g. about 17, than the remainder of the body side wall. This greater taper angle provides sufllcient clearance between the outside surface of the body wall adjacent its lower end and the inside surface of the flange 20 to permit substantially full insertion of one cup into another; or at least insertion to a point where the brim of one cup rests on the brim of the subjacent cup, i.e. brim-tobrirn nesting.

In the usual formation of the end closure 14, a flat, circular blank is drawn into a shallow cup shape to provide the panel 16 and flange 20. The greater taper angle provides another advantage in that during the draw forming of the closure 14, less diameter reduction is required to form the flange 20 thereby reducing wrinkling or other undesirable distortion thereof.

Any suitable adhesive may be used to secure the flange to the inside surface of the -body side wall. However, it has been found that when a liquid adhesive is used, during high speed manufacture of the subject cups on automatic equipment, some tendency exists for the liquid adhesive to squeeze out of the joint onto the bottom or inner side Wall of the cup. Such a condition is not only unsightly but often causes adjacent cups nested in a stack to stick to one another. v

To alleviate this problem, the joint between the flange 20 and the body side Wall is preferably effected by a thin layer of pre-applied, hot melt adhesive. Further, to obviate the necessity for careful placement or indexing of the pre-applied adhesive, the cup stock either for the body 12 or the closure 14 or both, is extrusion coated with a thin layer of thermoplastic material 22, such as polyethylene. Obviously, the coating 22 must be applied to that surface of the body or closure stock which Will be disposed between the body 12 and the flange 20 in the iinished cup.

FIG. 2 shows the coating 22 applied to one side 0f the closure 14 so that the coating provides not only the thermoplastic adhesive between the flange 20 and body 12 but also a protective coating on the outside surface of the panel 16. FIG. 3 shows the coating 22 applied to the inside surface of the body 12. When so placed, the coating 22, in addition to providing the adhesive, also functions as the liquid resistant lining for the body 12 mentioned hereinbefore.

It is thought that the invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood from the foregoing description and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction, and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacricing all of its material advantages, the form hereinbefore described being merely a preferred embodiment thereof.

We claim:

1. A two-piece nestable drinking cup comprising an imperforate body having a tapered side wall, and an imperforate closure secured to the smaller end of said body, said closure comprising a panel and an integral peripheral flange, said panel extending transversely of said body at said smaller end and forming an end wall of said cup, said panel adjacent its juncture with said ange being essentially co-planar With the periphery of said smaller end, said flange extending away from said smaller end and being contiguous and adhesively bonded to said body adjacent said smaller end, the amount of taper of said side Wall contiguous said adhesively bonded flange being greater than the amount of taper in the remainder of said side wall.

2. The cup set forth in claim 1 wherein the central portion of said panel is dished slightly inwardly of the remainder of sa-id panel.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,173,585 9/39 Harrison 229-3.l 2,244,282 6/41 Bergstein 229-31 X 2,949,699 8/60 Lapetina et a1. 229-15 X 2,988,258 6/61 Witzke 229-5.l

FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Primary Examiner.

EARLE J. DRUMMOND, GEORGE O. RALSTON,

Examiners. 

1. A TWO-PIECE NESTABLE DRINKING CUP COMPRISING AN IMPERFORATE BODY HAVING A TAPERED SIDE WALL, AND AN IMPERFORATE CLOSURE SECURED TO THE SMALLER END OF SAID BODY, SAID CLOSURE COMPRISING A PANEL AND AN INTEGRAL PERIPHERAL FLANGE, SAID PANEL EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY OF SAID BODY AT SAID SMALLER END AND FORMING AN END WALL OF SAID CUP, SAID PANEL ADJACENT ITS JUNCTURE WITH SAID FLANGE BEING ESSENTIALLY CO-PLANAT WITH THE PERIPHERY OF SID SMALLER END, SAID FLANGE EXTENDING AWAY FROM SAID SMALLER, END AND BEING CONTIGUOUS AND ADHESIVELY BONDED TO SAID BODY ADJACENT SAID SMALLER END, THE AMOUNT OF TAPER OF SAID WALL CONTIGUOUS AND ADHESIVELY BONDED FLANGE BEING GREATER THAN THE AMOUNT OF TAPER IN THE REMAINDER OF SAID SIDE WALL. 